Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Mentoring: The Ministry of Spiritual Kinship

A mentor is (usually) an older and more experienced
person who shares information with another person and often serves as an
advocate for that person.Most mentoring
is rather informal and unstructured.This
may be one reason the process is often hard to define or identify.

Edward Sellner makes an attempt in this direction with
Mentoring: The Ministry of Spiritual Kinship. Sellner is a professor of pastoral theology and spirituality with a background
as a chemical dependency counselor.This
unusual combination provides some fresh insights to the practice of mentoring.

In this book, Sellner
approaches the spiritual type of mentorship from several different
perspectives.He draws on the spiritual
practices of the desert fathers, Celtic spirituality, developmental psychology,
Jungian dream therapy, and the life of C. S. Lewis to illustrate the varied
ways in which one might serve as a spiritual mentor.This does not work in every instance, but the
writer’s attempt shows the richness of the tradition.

Two chapters were especially helpful to me.In his discussion of C. S. Lewis, he provides
a unique perspective on Lewis that shows not only how he mentored one of his
students but how the Oxford professor grew spiritually in the process.Sellner’s brief recounting of the role of the
Irish anamchara or soul friend explains
how this relationship made a significant contribution to Christian
spirituality, making a link between soul friend and mentor that was new to me.

Sellner has used his experience, education, and
imagination to bring new dimensions to the role of mentor.This is an interesting read.

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About Me

I consider myself an itinerant educator. My time is spent in encouraging and equipping ministers through my work with the Central Baptist Seminary and Pinnacle Leadership Associates. I also do volunteer work with my church in the area of leader development. Other time is devoted to reading, writing, traveling, and spending time with grandchildren and my wife, Rita.